The POWER Interview: Managing Operations in a Pandemic World
The post The POWER Interview: Managing Operations in a Pandemic World appeared first on POWER Magazine.
Power generation companies, like other businesses, have altered operations due to COVID-19. And it’s more than just having employees work remotely, wear masks, and social distance.
Managing data and documents with new protocols in place is critical to any asset-intensive industry, and electricity providers are no different. The Kinsmen Group, an engineering and information management firm, cites a recent report noting how the global digital asset management market reached a value of $ 3.4 billion in 2019, and how that market is expected to grow to $ 8.5 billion by 2025.
The group says this growth is caused by two major factors: the continued trend toward digitization, and increasing adoption of cloud-based services.
The Kinsmen Group told POWER its team has seen problems arise for businesses due to the pandemic, as companies alter their traditional way of doing things.…
[VIDEO] POWER Insights: Developing Reliable, and Efficient, Energy Solutions
The post [VIDEO] POWER Insights: Developing Reliable, and Efficient, Energy Solutions appeared first on POWER Magazine.
Ameresco has a 20-year history of providing energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions for its customers across North America and the UK. The company works on upgrades of facility infrastructure, and develops, builds, and operates renewable energy plants.
The company also works with customers on tailored financial solutions to bring projects to fruition. Ameresco’s business engages with clients on both sides of the meter, with an eye toward reducing operating expenses, upgrading and maintaining facilities, stabilizing energy costs, and increasing energy reliability.
Ameresco was founded in 2000 by George Sakellaris, a pioneer in the energy service business. Much of the company’s recent work centers around microgrids, as Ameresco works to provide more reliable and resilient power both in support of the grid, and for installations off the grid. Among its projects is a comprehensive energy solution for the U.S. Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island in South Carolina (Figure 1), and a microgrid at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine.…
EIA Details Impact of Coal-to-Gas Switching
The post EIA Details Impact of Coal-to-Gas Switching appeared first on POWER Magazine.
U.S. utilities have made a significant move away from coal-fired power generation in the past decade, evidenced by a continuing stream of announced coal plant retirements.
That transition has been partly driven by new generation from renewable resources, such as wind and solar power. New data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released August 5, though, shows that a large part of that transition came as generators repurposed those coal plants to run on natural gas, or built new gas-fired plants to replace electricity generated by burning coal.
The EIA on Wednesday said 121 U.S. coal-fired power plants were repurposed to burn other fuels between 2011 and 2019. The agency said 85% of those plants were converted to gas, or replaced by natural gas-fired plants. This coal-to-gas switching was driven not only by more stringent emissions regulations, but also by consistently lower prices for natural gas.
Xuzhou 3 Shows the Future of Subcritical Coal Power Is Sublime
The post Xuzhou 3 Shows the Future of Subcritical Coal Power Is Sublime appeared first on POWER Magazine.
A remarkable retrofit at Xuzhou Unit 3 boosted the 320-MW subcritical coal unit’s efficiency to beyond 43.56%—higher than all existing Chinese supercritical units, and even many ultrasupercritical units. The groundbreaking demonstration is a POWER 2020 Top Plant award winner because it offers crucial hope and new purpose for subcritical units around the world.
In April 2017, engineers from Shanghai Shenergy Power Technology sat together contemplating how they would execute a formidable task. Owing partly to their success at boosting the annual average net efficiency at Shanghai Waigaoqiao 3, an ultrasupercritical (USC) unit (and a 2015 POWER Top Plant), to a world-class 44.5%, Hong Kong–based power generation giant China Resources Power had invited the technology arm of Shanghai government–owned Shenergy Group to conduct a high-temperature retrofit at one of four units at the 1.2-GW Xuzhou China Resources Power Plant in Jiangsu province.…